Ellen

I'll Go and Come Back (Staff Pick)

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I'll Go and Come Back By Rajani LaRocca, Sara Palacios (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Rajani LaRocca, Sara Palacios (Illustrator)
$13.48
ISBN: 9781536207170
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Candlewick - March 29th, 2022

Distance and language are no barriers to the very special bond between grandparent and grandchild in this sweet story of Jyoti and her grandmother. Winner of the Massachusetts Book Award this year.

- Ellen


Upstairs Delicatessen (Staff Pick)

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The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading By Dwight Garner Cover Image
$21.60
ISBN: 9780374603427
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - October 24th, 2023

Garner serves up the perfect proportions of food and literature. Nothing escapes the eye of this veteran book critic in this soup to nuts anecdotal reportage. In 6 chapters, Garner strips away the pretense surrounding fast food, biscuits fried in butter, and pb&j. If you're looking for haute cuisine, not here. And oh, Garner likes his martinis shaken not stirred. Bon Appetit!

- Ellen


Between Two Kingdoms

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Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted By Suleika Jaouad Cover Image
Not Available
ISBN: 9780399588587
Availability: Available to Order from Supplier: Arrives at Store in a Week(ish)
Published: Random House - February 9th, 2021

Joauad’s memoir is a primer for all of us slowly emerging from lockdown.  Her young life was abruptly interrupted in her early 20’s when she received a devastating diagnosis followed by 3 and a half years of isolating treatment. Her very brave battle continued after her release from hospital as she took stock of what she’d lost, who she had become, and how to live again. You won’t be able to put this down.


Ellen

World of Wonders

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World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments By Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Fumi Nakamura (Illustrator) Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781571313652
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Milkweed Editions - September 8th, 2020

I initially picked up this book because of the cover, I admit it.  What I found was not one of those ubiquitous books "about nature". In these 20 essays, the author writes about the more unusual forms flora and fauna all around us from the perspective of herself as a young girl and then as an adult. Each story is a carefully crafted gem in which the personal and the natural history are woven together, to create a loving portrait of her family.  Makes a great gift!!

Ellen


A Most Beautiful Thing

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A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team By Arshay Cooper Cover Image
Not Available
ISBN: 9781250754769
Availability: Email online@portersquarebooks.com to Check Availability
Published: Flatiron Books - June 30th, 2020

 

Inspiring true story from Chicago's West Side in the turbulent 1990s. A group of young Black men from Manley High form the first black rowing team to save themselves. They are utterly transformed by the experience. Survivors, they reunite 20 years later to make a difference by offering the same opportunity to young black kids in their hometown. They also invite white members of the Chicago Police Department to join them in bringing people together to make a difference one stroke at a time. You will be moved to tears. Now available as a documentary on Peacock TV.

Ellen


One Last Lunch

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One Last Lunch: A Final Meal with Those Who Meant So Much to Us By Erica Heller (Editor) Cover Image
By Erica Heller (Editor)
Not Available
ISBN: 9781419735325
Availability: Email online@portersquarebooks.com to Check Availability
Published: Abrams Press - May 12th, 2020

 

You've seen those author interviews where the question is inevitably asked, "if you were to host a dinner party and could invite anyone you wanted who would you invite and why?" In this volume, Erica Heller, daughter of author Joseph Heller, makes it lunch and brings together the responses of 50 notable personalities like Michael Douglas, Daniel Bellow, and Bob Balaban to name a few. Questions one has always wanted answered by a loved one or admired mentor are fully fleshed out over a shared meal. Lovely distracting reading for our current times.

 

Ellen


The Patch

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The Patch By John McPhee Cover Image
Not Available
ISBN: 9781250234889
Availability: Available to Order from Supplier: Arrives at Store in a Week(ish)
Published: Picador - November 19th, 2019

 

Now in paperback just in time for the holiday season, the seventh collection of McPhee’s essays and an all around “Best of” his body of work.   McPhee brings his inimitable talent for observation to bear on several arenas of the human experience… sports, the phenomenon of celebrity status, nature…employing wit, poetry, and his trademark “turn of phrase”.  His curiosity about all things never ceases to entertain.

 

Ellen


The Guest Book

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The Guest Book: A Novel By Sarah Blake Cover Image
Not Available
ISBN: 9781250110251
Availability: Email online@portersquarebooks.com to Check Availability
Published: Flatiron Books - May 7th, 2019

 

Perfect for long stretches of uninterrupted reading. .. this is THAT book which will transport the reader to another time and place. This is the story of the Milton family through generations as they face the challenges of their changing landscape. From the 1930’s to the present, issues of race and class impact their lives and create upheaval. Choices made and paths taken in earlier decades come to the surface and unsettle the current generation. In life, as in literature, we can not escape our past.

Ellen


Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity

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Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate Our Shared Humanity (Cooking with Barbara Abdeni Massaad) By Barbara Abdeni Massaad, Barbara Abdeni Massaad (Illustrator) Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781566560894
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Interlink Books - May 15th, 2015

It is meant to tug on your heart strings and, at the risk of editorializing, it SHOULD! The recipes in Soup for Syria are the basic stuff of life and have sustained these people for centuries. They aren’t fancy, but as we enter the winter season, these soups are just what we want … hearty and healthful. The likes of Anthony Bourdain, Ana Sortun, Yotam Ottolenghi, Alice Waters and others have contributed to this collection. Proceeds from sales of this book will help fund relief efforts for Syrian refugees. It is the holiday spirit all wrapped up in one single volume.

Ellen

 


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